5 Things to Do in Vancouver WA This Weekend - Aloha, Pro Motocross, Camas Days, Nature & Blueberry Pancakes (July 23–26, 2026)

Twenty-four years ago, Deva Yamashiro ("Aunty Deva"), Vicky Holt Takamine, and the Ke Kukui Foundation founded what was then "Three Days of Aloha" in Vancouver, Washington. What began as a community gathering rooted in the desire to share Native Hawaiian arts and culture with the Pacific Northwest has grown into something remarkable: the largest Native Hawaiian cultural celebration anywhere in the Pacific Northwest, drawing tens of thousands of attendees from across the country and around the world. In 2024, the Washington Festival and Events Association named it SW Washington's Event of the Year. The 2026 edition - now in its 24th year - promises to be the biggest yet.

Spread across Clark College and Esther Short Park over four full days, 4 Days of Aloha is genuinely immersive. This is not a performance you watch from the outside - it's a pa'ina (gathering) you participate in. The programming is layered and deep: cultural workshops where attendees can learn traditional Hawaiian arts, crafts, and practices; live performances including 'oli (chant), mele (song), and hula from master practitioners and their hālau; a hula competition that draws serious competitors and devoted audiences; a summer fun run (5K, 10K, and keiki run); concerts in the evenings; a beer garden; local vendors selling authentic Hawaiian food, goods, and crafts; and keiki (children's) activities throughout. The Welcome Pa'ina is free and open to the public. Other events require tickets, available through the official website. If you have never attended 4 Days of Aloha and you live within 30 miles of Vancouver, this is the year to change that.

Round 8 of the AMA Pro Motocross Championship Series arrives in our backyard this weekend, and if you've never watched professional motocross at Washougal, you don't fully understand what a gift it is to live here. Washougal Motocross Park is universally regarded as one of the most scenic and visually stunning circuits in the entire sport. Manufacturers and sponsors fly in specifically to use the facility for television commercials and photo shoots - the combination of towering Pacific Northwest fir trees, the Washougal River running through the property, and the Columbia River visible at the base of the mountain produces imagery that no other motocross track in the world can match.

The Washougal National is an old-school motocross event in the best sense of the word - a facility where the track winds through dramatic elevation changes, where spectators can get genuinely close to the action in ways that modern venues rarely allow, and where the atmosphere feels earned rather than produced. The famous Dunlop Horsepower Hill sends riders nearly vertical before the crest, and the 100% Ski Jump produces the kind of aerial moments that make you understand why this sport has a global following. The world's best 450 and 250 class professional motocross riders compete across the three-day event. This is world-class sport, Pacific Northwest setting, and 20 minutes east of Vancouver on SR-14.

Camas Days is the annual signature celebration of one of Clark County's most beloved small cities - two full days when Historic Downtown Camas closes its streets, sets up a festival, and welcomes the entire region to enjoy everything that makes this place so worth knowing. Organized by the Camas-Washougal Chamber of Commerce, this is a genuine community celebration with an impressive 13-hour daily run: from 10 AM to 11 PM Friday and Saturday, giving you the flexibility to show up for a morning parade, an afternoon stroll through the vendor market, or a late evening glass of local wine with friends.

The programming hits every note. A parade runs through historic downtown and draws a crowd that knows this street and has watched this parade for years. Live music fills the air throughout both days. Street vendors offer an eclectic mix of local goods and artisan products. The wine and microbrew street is a genuine draw - local wineries and craft breweries pour in a dedicated section of downtown that has its own distinct festive energy. Kids' activities keep the youngest attendees happy. And then there's the bonus: the Downtown Camas Association adds a free Picnic in Color event on Sunday July 27 from 11 AM to 3 PM at 4th and Cedar - a family arts and crafts event that extends the Camas Days spirit into Sunday with no admission required.

Columbia Springs Environmental Education Center is one of Vancouver's most underappreciated gems - a working nature education campus along SE Evergreen Highway that has been connecting Clark County families and students with the natural world for years. Their Nature Day series brings that educational mission into a free, drop-in community event format, and the July 25 edition is themed around "Wild Neighbors" - the wildlife that lives alongside us in the Pacific Northwest, often without us noticing.

This is a hands-on, science-forward morning designed for genuine curiosity at every age. The programming is built to engage preschool-aged kids and elementary schoolers as naturally as it engages middle schoolers, high school students, and adults. No tickets, no RSVP, no schedule to follow - just show up at 12208 SE Evergreen Hwy between 10 AM and 1 PM, bring your curiosity, and prepare for some nature fun. Whether your wild neighbors are songbirds, beavers, native insects, or the plants that support them, Columbia Springs offers the kind of environmental education experience that makes you look at your own backyard differently afterward.

If you've been following this blog's summer series, you already know Cedar Creek Grist Mill from Fry Bread Day in May and Strawberry Shortcake Day in June. July brings the third and arguably most indulgent installment: Blueberry Pancake Day. Same historic 1876 water-powered mill. Same stunning covered bridge over Cedar Creek. Same all-volunteer team milling flour on-site from grain to powder using nothing but running water and 150 years of working machinery. This time, that fresh-milled whole wheat flour becomes blueberry pancakes - smothered in fresh blueberries and drowned in blueberry syrup - and every single one of them is free.

Cedar Creek Grist Mill is one of only two remaining original grain-grinding mills in all of Washington State that has kept its structural integrity, grinds with stones, and still runs entirely on water power. No gas. No electricity. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it sits alongside a hand-rebuilt covered bridge in a forested river basin near Woodland - one of the most photogenic and genuinely peaceful spots in southwest Washington. The monthly food events are how the mill community welcomes the public in and shares what this place is. Whether you've been before or this is your first visit, showing up at noon on the last Saturday of July for blueberry pancakes made from flour milled that same morning is one of those Clark County experiences that stays with you.